The unsolicited mail, received by a Roll Call reporter in Washington, D.C., includes a four-page letter from former Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.). He writes that the "Senate is our firewall against total GOP control of Congress — and we absolutely must protect it in 2012." Kennedy goes on to write that the DSCC is the organization that can do that, and any donation sent in by March 19 will be matched.

Recalling his father, the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), the former Congressman writes: "We've come too far to go back now."

Also included in the envelope is a double-sided flier with the tote bag offer on one side and an "urgent update" and menacing photo of GOP strategist Karl Rove on the other. It notes that Rove and the Koch brothers have pledged to raise a half-billion dollars in the 2012 cycle.

The DSCC raised $5 million in January, bringing its cycle-to-date number to an amount that would will fill an untold numbers of tote bags: $47 million.